This invention relates to a moccasin-type shoe seam and, more particularly, to a seam between the plug and the vamp of a moccasin-type shoe and method of manufacuturing same. The term"moccasin" will be understood to mean a shoe in which a vamp, a part of the upper, underlies the wearer's foot, particularly in the toe area, and is joined by a seam to a toe-covering plug.
Conventionally, moccasins are hand assembled on a last by a tedious, time-consuming process requiring considerable skill. In the conventional process, a thoroughly mulled vamp is stretched progressively over a last as its edge is joined to that of a plug by a hand-formed moccasin seam, for example, a two thread through and through seam in which each thread passes through a stitch hole and alternately over the surface of the plug and of the vamp. In many cases, it is necessary to use a locking-type of stitch in order to ensure that the seam between the plug and the vamp will not come apart. Considerable skill is required because the seam not only joins the parts by also stretches the vamp and plug over the last to give the shoe its shape. Since the operator must exercise care to obtain acceptably uniform products, particularly in view of unavoidable variations in leather, the sewing of moccasins by hand is both time-consuming and expensive.
In many conventional moccasin seams of this type, the raw or cut edges of the plug and vamp are exposed in the finished seam, with the result that the seam does not have a finished or smooth appearance. Seam or binding constructions have been proposed for concealing these raw edges, but have involved complicated and/or costly methods of forming same.